The Gree stories of C. C. MacApp are a reminder of the old Pulps. In the days of the magazines like Thrilling Wonder Stories, Ray Palmer’s Amazing Stories and Planet Stories, these publications supplied fans with adventure-oriented Science Fiction. After the Pulps died, the Science Fiction digests didn’t exactly rush in to fill that need. Frederik Pohl, as editor of IF in 1962, consciously sought out writers who could write good SF that had a more adventurous feel.
Carroll Mather Capps (1917-1971) was an adventure-oriented Science Fiction writer who wrote seven novels and a couple of good short stories series. The best of these was the Gree tales from IF and Worlds of Tomorrow and the Omaha Abides stories. Pohl brought exciting MacApp’s action-oriented SF to the same magazine as Fred Saberhagen’s Berserkers and Keith Laumer’s Retief and Bolo series.
MacApp shows an empire dominated by a single being, the Gree. Humans, and other subjected races, are indoctrinated from birth to worship the Gree. MacApp doesn’t assume humans are superior. Like John Wyndham in “Exiles on Asperus” (Wonder Stories Quarterly, Winter 1933) many decades earlier, our ability to love and adapt are used against us to make us good slaves to the bat-like Batrachs. McApp’s Gree has a similar way of demanding all-consuming love from its subjects.
“The Slaves of Gree” (IF, August 1964) has Jen, a young male who is found lost at sea. He is adopted by the clan that finds him and slowly he gains some of his memory and abilities back. The Gree use mobile “treadbags” (imagine something like a bubble from The Prisoner) that protect their owners from the elements. Jen goes on a Goar hunt, fighting the gigantic planaria worm with its claws and a horn of crystal.
Jen rises in the ranks because of his ability. He goes to a battle school that presages Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. He ends up on a scout ship in the middle of a battle. His quick action, and that of his B’lant friend Fazzool, wins them an audience with Gree himself. It is during the battle we learn that Jen is a mental construct. Jen’s real personality is actually Steve Duke, human spy.
The Gree sends for Jen and Fazzool because of their bravery during the battle, and the hint that humans now have a new weapon that the pair witnessed its use during the conflict. This gets Jen/Steve within reach of the strange being that rules the empire.
Steve steals a laser from a guard and kills everyone except Fazzool. (He only wounds him, getting him out of the way.) Using the laser, he cuts Gree into pieces, finding a weird snake-like metal spine that tries to flee. Taking the spine back to human space, he gives it to the weird bird-like aliens who are humankind’s great allies, the Birds of Effogus. The story ends quite quickly, with Steve Dukes gathering a corp of commandos around him. Ready for a sequel!
“Gree’s Commandos” (IF, February 1965) is a more straight forward adventure tale. Steve goes to a planet with a thick atmosphere. On this planet everything flies. His mission is to find a group of Gree commandos and learn their secret. He teams up with the elephantine Harnkrah and fights an epic battle against the reptilian Kullig.
Finding the Gree base, he slips in and discovers they have a device that can null (MacApp’s version of space warp) individuals directly to the planet’s surface. In this way three thousand commandos have arrives. A distraction and extraction by the Birds of Effogus ends the tale. MacApp has written a story here that– if you removed the alien world– could be a James Bond or Alistair Maclean story. Unlike those writers, there are no women in MacApp’s series. This is sadly a Boys Only affair.
“Gree’s Hellcats” (IF, April 1965) begins with Steve Duke on patrol with a squadron of ships. During the encounter he discovers a new animal that the Gree are using against the humans. These cat-like creatures lead Steve to take on another one-man spying mission.
Steve infiltrates the base, becomes familiar with its air duct system. He witnesses a hunt where the cats are gathered. He also finds the technology that is placed inside cat’s ears. It is a simple control system and computer. Ready to evacuate, Steve plans to steal a scout ship and null space out. The null tech from the last story has become routine. A large room is sucked free of air to create a vacuum for a ship to jump in. Steve has to wait ten minutes before he can jump. The Gree start removing the air so they can null a bomb in. It is a race now. He leaks the air from his ship to slow them down. He needs more time. He places the cat control device on his head. It reminds him that water can be turned into gas. The ship has hundreds of tons of water. He dumps the water where it will vaporize and escapes.
“No Friend of Gree” (IF, June 1965) has Steve on a planet that has been sentenced to destruction by the Gree. The officer and some B’lant allies encounter strange creatures and a mystery that has to be solved. Only after they find strange slugs do they learn that the creatures are intelligent and can take over other races. The slugs want to be friends of the Birds of Effogus and find a willing host in Steve’s underling, Grebl.
“Gree’s Damned Ones” (IF, September 1965) has Steve on a mysterious planet on a suicide mission. Disguised as a Gree gunner, he is chosen to lead a sortie of brain-burned and other cannon-fodder to a mysterious cliff. Along the way, the flora and fauna kill ruthlessly. One of the dangers are seeds that defy gravity and whip around like bullets.
When Steve arrives at the cliff, he finds another group has also made it. That group is lead by his old pal, Fazzool, now sorely brain-burned. The two men design a raft that will float on air because the bottom is layered with floating seeds. This dangerous craft gets them to the hidden fortress beyond the cliff where they meet the creators. Fazzool drops to his knees because they look like Gree. He also remembers Steve and tries to kill him.
Steve (and the readers) learn much from their two hosts. First off, we learn t hey are the old race, the ones the Gree imitate. We also learn that the planet is Effogus, the place from which the Birds of Effogus originate. Unfortunately, the old ones won’t/can’t help. They can not give the humans weapons or secrets. The old ones are leaving but find it interesting that the Birds have taken up the philosophy of war. Steve and Fazzool are to be returned. The old ones have fixed Fazzool’s brain-burned injuries. They give Steve a gift for the Birds, a packet of grass seed, a symbol of their lost peace.
Most of the stories after the first installment have felt like pot-boilers (though each has introduced a new idea). This one is different. It is a cool journey through a terrible land but the ending moves the entire backdrop back into focus. It also reunites Steve and Fazzool.
“Like Any World of Gree” (Worlds of Tomorrow, March 1966) has Steve on the original planet Earth, now a Gree World. The planet is used for raising foodstuffs and slave babies. Steve assumes the identity of a bounty hunter, Ralph Parr, in an attempt to find the secret port by which the Gree send people in and out. The clock is ticking because a space fleet is in route, and if the Gree get wind they may blow the whole place up as they go.
Steve gets himself held by the authorities, allowing him to look for the port. One of the many conscripts, Langdon, uses his knowledge of the real Ralph Parr to work himself into Steve’s plan. It all looks like it will work until Steve is taken into an Inquisition booth. He has no choice but to activate his ‘Jen’ persona. Jen hasn’t been in control for months and feels confused. The medics drug him. Steve has to force himself awake and overcome the drugs as the partisans attack the base. All works out with the help of one man, the real Ralph Parr.
Over-all, another adventure-oriented tale similar to men’s adventure fiction, with little new to add to the Gree universe except a new character for the series.
“Enemies of Gree” (IF, September 1966) has Steve, Fazzool and Ralph Parr on a seemingly unimportant planet. The Gree have discovered a skeleton in the mud flats. The trio engineer a diversion so they can sneak into the Gree camp and see the body. It is similar to a Sambril skeleton (one of MacApp’s space-faring races). The real question becomes: are they alone? An invisible native race appears to be watching them and may have put the skeleton out as a test. Steve is interested because he is always looking for more allies against the Gree. The aliens turn out to be the very first enemies of the Gree, fleeing in a giant space ark.
“The Sign of Gree” (IF, November 1966) begins with Steve allowing himself to be captured, posing as a Gree slave. The race that has taken him is called the Remm. They have null tech that allows their ships to appear and disappear in rapid succession. Steve wants to make contact with the secretive aliens as they are enemies of the Gree. The Remm are tall, cat-like aliens. Steve discovers that Fazzool has also been captured. The two are recruited by the Remm to look at a Gree derelict ship that was used as a training ship for Overseers. Steve plays a waiting game as he explores the ship’s potential while feeding the Remm some information.
Later the ship is attacked by winged spear-throwing aliens. This gives the duo time to escape, to capture two aircars and sue for peace. Saving the Remm from the winged creature, Egral, the lead cat, shares information with Steve. The humans finally admit they aren’t Gree but work for the Birds of Effogus. The Remm live far away, closer to the galaxy center where space is not easily navigated. The Remm ship was accidentally thrown far from their space. They had hoped to use Gree technology to get home. To make matters worse, all the Remm onboard are soldiers, not technicians. Their techs are all female and are not risked on war ships.
C. J. Cherryh would turn the idea of cat aliens around in her wonderful Hanur series. In her books, the females are the ones who explore space, while the males stay home and fight with each other for dominance.
“A Beachhead For Gree” (IF, February 1967) has the ultimate team assembled: Fazzool the B’lant, Ralph Parr the Earthman, Egral the Remm and of course, Steve Duke himself. Egral is in hot water for his first contact from the previous story. To make amends, he and the team will go to a Gree world which is used as a hub and destroy its null tanks. The planet is inhabited by the Doyt, thin-boned humanoids who fly in wooden gliders. The Doyt are pacifists and won’t fight the Gree. The Gree have taken all the Doyt criminals to their base. Egral, whose homeworld is at risk, is willing to sacrifice the Doyt to win the day. Steve is not.
The team ambush a patrol as a first step to getting inside the Gree base. This plan goes sideways as the Gree throw heavy weaponry at the team. Steve and his men lose Egral in the fight. They are attacked by a Doyt armed with a dart gun. Later when the Gree corner them, other Doyt come to their rescue. Their leader explains that the Gree have succeeded in turning their criminals into killers. They can no longer remain out of the fight.
Steve and Fazzool get inside the base and blow up the null tank. Before they do this they see that the Gree had several locations they could null to from that position, avenues created by the original Gree race. There are now more galaxies that the human allies must protect from the Gree. MacApp ends the series here, with his team of four soldiers ready to explore those new worlds. He never got around to writing those stories but we have the original nine to enjoy.
Conclusion
C. C. MacApp is not as well remembered as Saberhagen or Laumer today, but his Gree stories offers as much fun and ideas as either of these men. Saberhagen grew his killer deathstars into a series of paperbacks just as Retief filled a dozen too. MacApp died in 1971, making it impossible for him to fill the paperbacks of the 1980s. He did write a few like Prisoners of the Sky (1969) and Bumsider (1972), but they were not enough. We can only imagine the unwritten adventures we have missed.
